Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 28,213 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 466,189 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,213 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $17,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 88,532.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 79,084,569 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $3,115,932,000 after buying an additional 78,995,341 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $1,829,675,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 67,976,459 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,678,273,000 after purchasing an additional 11,987,691 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 81.3% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,604,493 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $540,193,000 after purchasing an additional 4,756,222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 4.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 98,027,542 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,151,714,000 after purchasing an additional 4,527,387 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Redburn Atlantic raised Verizon Communications from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $33.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Verizon Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE:VZ opened at $39.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Verizon Communications Inc. has a one year low of $30.14 and a one year high of $43.42. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.17. The company has a market cap of $167.83 billion, a PE ratio of 14.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08. The company had revenue of $35.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.60 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.71%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.66%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 96.38%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 24,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.80, for a total value of $979,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,201 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,200.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Profile

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).